FLASH SPOILER Review: Episode 6×10- “Marathon”

The Flash (6×10)- “Marathon”

Written by: Sam Chalsen & Lauren Barnett

Directed by: Stefan Pleszczynski

Now we’re really back.

And it’s a whole new, jumbled up world. Where everybody’s around (except for Batman and Wonder Woman but that’s understandable) and potentially able to show up. Let’s celebrate with a cup of coffee.

Fortunately, Jitters is reopening after a five month renovation (I hope it’s more than just new turquoise chairs and bus trays because that shouldn’t have taken five months.) But wouldn’t you know it, Jitters can’t even properly reopen without some people trying to shoot up the place and rob them.

Fortunately, this was just dumb criminals doing dumb criminal things so Barry could save the day. To get the kinks out after so long doing the End of the Multiverse. Also getting back in the swing of things is Cisco and considering the year he’s had (getting a new girlfriend, giving up his powers, avenging the death of his girlfriend, getting his powers back AND then losing them again) he’s taking the death of the Multiverse in stride.

It’s a bad stride that comes off like he’s freaking out but it’s in stride. But he raises some excellent points. The history of the world has changed in great and subtle ways and they will have no way of truly knowing until they’re confronted with these changes. So we’re just going to let him stew, it’s time to sideline Barry for the episode.

Diggle’s the man for the job this time, he’s come to visit Barry and Iris with a bequeathment from Oliver’s Will. Namely the mask Barry made for him way back in season two before any of this insanity started. (Nice call back gang.) The mask has a smudge of something on it and that triggers Barry’s conspiracy theory obsession and he and Diggle are officially off the table for this week.

Speaking of conspiracy theories, Iris is chasing down leads on the super-secret organization that’s apparently up to something… Fortunately for us, this is the CW and not the real world so when people chase after made-up conspiracies they don’t look like Alex Jones or Brian Stelter (There, I’ve made sure to mock both the right and the left) they look like Candice Patton and the conspiracies aren’t made up.

Apparently, the organization loves their weaponized tech and is tangled up with McCulloch Tech. They also love their assassins which brings us to our villain of the week, Doctor Light. But it’s not the as yet only mentioned Doctor Light, nor is it Earth-2 Linda Park (Too bad, I’ve missed Malese Jow.) this time it’s Kimiyo Hoshi and she’s got a nifty McCulloch Tech gun that lets her shoot people with intensified Ultra-Violet Light. (Insert Ozone Layer Joke HERE.)

Later, Iris, Kamilla and Allegra show their theory to Cecile and while it’s still mostly guesswork and unconnected evidence Iris is convinced enough to confront the head of McCulloch tech and since he’s a tall good looking business man introduced in this episode with a perfectly reasonable explanation for why an overworked member of his staff went down the rabbit hole after a rival company tried to steal from McCulloch Tech and he had to fire him… he is evil and part of the conspiracy and hits her with a two-pronged attack. Suing her for slan-

Good point, Jonah. Libel and defamation. The second prong is sending Doctor Light after her. Doctor Light has better immediate results: Shooting up the CCC’s offices, destroying their evidence and hitting Iris with her light gun (Insert Skin Cancer Joke HERE.) but Iris is undeterred and keeps pushing.

Of course she nearly gets Joe and Frost killed in the process before she gets McCulloch to back down but you can’t break a story without getting at least some of your friends and family killed. That’s Journalism 101.

So while all this is going down it turns out the smudge on Oliver’s mask contains soil samples that point to an island in the South China Sea and in case you weren’t already sure it was Lian Yu, traces of Mirakuru. You know, the World War 2 Japanese super-soldier serum that gave us Deathstroke and since I didn’t see Manu Bennett’s name in the credits this week that means Barry and Diggle have to make sure the Mirakuru hasn’t fallen into the wrong hands so that means they have to go to The Island.

It ends up being a wild goose chase but that’s pretty much what’s happening in all the plots this week. It was all about Cisco, Iris and Barry trying to put Crisis to rest and live on when none of them expected to and each of them had to confront that in their own way.

That’s not to say that is all that happened. There’s plenty of seeds this week. Cisco’s showed off Superman shirt he doesn’t remember ever owning drives home that it wasn’t just a folding of the Multiverse into one Earth and their rogues gallery has received a shake-up/reboot, their personal histories and even memories may not be able to be trusted going forward which leads Cisco to lease for a few weeks to try and figure out just how different Earth Prime is from what they know.

Before he leaves he asks Wells to keep an eye on STAR Labs and help the team. Wells is only too happy because that allows him to spend time with Allegra. This is important to him judging by the picture of him and Allegra he has in his utility belt.

On Lian Yu, Barry’s powers acted strange for a moment. It’s possible this was just because he was emotional or it could be something we have to keep an eye out. Barry’s connection to the Speed Force is connected to the Multiverse so it’s very likely that his powers were affected by its destruction. Also, it’s highly possible that Oliver DID leave the mask for Barry as a clue and we’ll revisit this mystery down the road.

The biggest seed is Iris’ investigation. The tease for next week saw Iris go back to McCulloch and break into Eva McCulloch’s office to seek out evidence. Unfortunately she was attacked by a mirror and in the Flash’s world that’s not a problem.

This was a solid episode to get the ball rolling again and it seems we’re going to be dealing with a new Mirror Master. That should be fun. I also like that they’ve essentially rebooted the Rogues gallery which will allow them to do things in new ways and bring back some of the villains we’ve that have died before. Hopefully they take advantage of this and be creative in the process. It’s not often you get the chance to refresh so much six seasons in, run with it. (Pardon the Phrasing.)

Things We Learned:

Earth One is now Earth Prime.
To allow for all the characters from other Earth to live on Earth Prime, history has been extensively rewritten.
Gotham City is in Wisconsin.

Questions: